Page 80 of Eldritch

Doug closed the laptop sitting on the office desk. Awkwardness she didn’t expect arose inside her, and her brain did one of those freeze responses where she couldn’t articulate what she wanted to say.

Doug turned to her. “Sorry I didn’t call earlier and tell you I was coming. Clarice called me at o’dark thirty this morning, which surprised me. I tried calling your cell and there was no answer. I texted and called the house phone.”

She frowned and looked at her cell. “No messages or missed calls here. Weird.” She drew in a breath and forced the next question out. “I have a favor to ask you, but if you don’t want to do it, I’ll understand.”

“Sure. What is it?” he asked.

“Taggert told me he put a tracking device on my car.”

Now he looked worried. “What?”

“Yeah.”

“Son-of-a-bitch.”

“He’s that and more. As a former cop, I thought you’d know how to remove it.”

He rubbed the back of his neck. “Of course I’ll help. I was going to ask you what was up with this guy. But I didn’t want to intrude.” He sighed. “Who am I kidding? I want to intrude, but the last thing you need is one guy acting all territorial when there’s another asshole already doing that.”

“You’re right. But you don’t seem to be the asshole type. I...” Did she say it out loud? “I trust you. Taggert is a whole different animal. I need some coffee. Do you have some time to talk about this now?”

“Yeah, I do.”

Sybil and Doug sat in the parlor on the weathered brown leather couch. They clutched coffee mugs, the kind with lids to keep the java hot. They’d nuked some pastries because neither of them had eaten breakfast. The chandelier in the middle of the room threw enough light to banish the shadows. Outside, the snowstorm kept it gloomy. She felt, for a moment, like Jack Torrance in the Stephen King novel The Shining.

Doug took a sip of his coffee. “Thanks for this. I ran out of the house without my plasma.”

“Can’t have that,” she said with a grin. She grabbed her pastry and took a bite. “I rarely eat this stuff in the morning, if at all. Don’t like sugar early in the morning.”

“Hey, it works when you’re desperate. Besides, you have to mix it up sometimes, right?”

She grinned. “Yep. And I don’t know where to start with this whole Taggert thing.”

“Tell me whatever you’re comfortable telling me.”

“It’s a long story, so I’ll give you the biggest parts, and I can always tell you the rest later.”

He took a sip of his coffee. “Sounds good.”

She made a face. “I’ve got a lot of baggage. Are you sure you want to hear this?”

Oh, Sybil. There you go again.

Her father’s voice? Her mother’s? Her own?

He placed his coffee on the table and turned toward her a little more. “Of course. It’s the only way I can help. I understand who Taggert is. He’s a misogynist. A narcissist. Am I right?”

She uttered a half laugh. “You got it.”

“Something is seriously wrong with him. Normal guys don’t put tracking devices on their former girlfriend’s vehicles.”

“You’ve got him down to the last inch.” She kept her hands cupped around the big coffee mug and taking comfort in its warmth. “I met Taggert early last year. We cleaned his mother’s house in Colorado. She’s a widow and moved from Texas to Denver to be closer to Taggert. He’s an only child. He grew up in Killeen but moved to Denver after he graduated from Texas A & M for a job opportunity. He’s a civil engineer. At first, he was super charming. My intuition was so off with him. Actually, that’s not true. I always felt like he might be a bit controlling. But I had no proof of that at first, so I just blew off my intuition.”

Doug said, “Yeah, that never works out well, does it?”

“Nope. About a month into our dating, he went from Mr. Nice Guy to nightmare fuel. He started being overbearing. He wanted…” Did she say this part? “He pressured me one night…started pawing me, but I realized early on we didn’t have that chemistry or personal connection and told him I wasn’t ready for that. I told myself maybe that would grow in time, but I said no to sex. He stormed out of my apartment. I was relieved. I should’ve called him up the next day and told him I didn’t want to see him anymore, but he called me first and apologized profusely.” She shrugged. “He agreed no pressure for sex.”

Doug put his mug down on the table, his expression colored by anger. “My guess is there is more.”

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